Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pseudo Biologist who wrote (2897)	2/12/2001 3:34:42 AM
From: Doc Bones	Respond to of 52153

NY Times & WSJ do major stories Monday on the human genome publication this week. The NY Times story seems pretty balanced and knowledgeable, The WSJ is a huge stock pump for CRA, The LA Times declares CRA's approach a failure! This race generated some strong feelings! Message 15334501 NY Times quote: 'Dr. Venter said he could find only 300 human genes that had no recognizable counterpart in the mouse.' (Are you a man or a mouse? Pretty hard to tell genetically.) ___________ latimes.com LA Times Quote: (Headline) '"Whole-Genome Shotgun" Missed Its Mark Research: Celera head J. Craig Venter had big plans for his mapping technique. But it didn't work' __________ WSJ Quote: '"Anyone who can afford to buy Celera should buy Celera," says Nathan Goodman, a genetic-information expert.' (He's talking about the data base, but I took it at first to mean the stock, and that's definitely the takeaway from the article for the public.) ---- The WSJ quotes more than half a dozen ecstatic Celera data base users, with just one sour note to the hymn of praise at the end. I think the WSJ article is the action item. I'm hoping it will boost some of the other genomic stocks too, though it's so favorable to Celera that I suppose it could harm them. Of course this is just one article in the big event this week. FREE WSJ SUMMARY AT QUICKEN.COM: quicken.com Celera Gene Map Earns Scientists' Kudos Over Human Genome Project Version Updated: Monday, February 12, 2001 01:01 AM It turns out for all his braggadocio, Dr. Venter was right, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. Three-year-old Celera (CRA, news, msgs), it now is clear, has produced a map that drug and biotech companies, hungry for gene information that will help them find new treatments, are plunking down millions of dollars a year for the rights to sift through. With the formal public release today of two versions of the so-called book of life, one by Celera and another by an international consortium of academics called the Human Genome Project, it looks to many gene-hunting scientists that Celera's book is going to be a best-seller. Both Celera, a unit of Applera Corp. of Norwalk, Conn., and the public genome project are publishing their findings for the world to see in separate journals this week, eight months after announcing to great fanfare last year that they had largely completed the mapping. The map of the human genome consists of 3.1 billion chemical letters of DNA deciphered and arranged in order across all 23 chromosomes. Celera's paying subscribers have been using the company's version of the book of human heredity for months. Many of them agree that the Celera genome is more accurate, easier to read and more complete than the rival version produced so far by the 10-year-old, public Human Genome Project. CRA 41.60 -3.41 For Celera the victory underscores the company's new place atop the biotech industry. Scientists who already have begun using the Celera map say it is fast becoming the preferred way for seaching for genes, making Celera as much a biotech-industry standard as Microsoft is to computer software. Beyond the scientific bragging rights, the difference in the two maps' quality is important for several reasons. Celera's operating system helps address one of the biggest challenges presented by the genomic revolution: navigating a flood of data that scientists must tediously sort through to find the genes they need to develop new medical treatments. Celera is betting scientists and companies will be willing to pay for access to that system.